de of het slagersmes?
het slagersmes
butchers' knife
noun · /ˈslaː.ɣərsˌmɛs/
It is “het slagersmes”. The plural is “de slagersmessen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: slagersmes
Forms
- Article
- het slagersmes
- Plural
- de slagersmessen
- Diminutive
- het slagersmesje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het slagersmes ligt op de snijplank.
The butcher's knife lies on the cutting board.
De kok sneed het vlees met het slagersmes.
The chef cut the meat with the butcher's knife.
Dit slagersmes is erg scherp.
This butcher's knife is very sharp.
Why this article
No rule predicts it
This one has to be memorised. No spelling pattern marks it as neuter, which is exactly why it is worth learning as “het slagersmes” rather than as “slagersmes” on its own.
The rules that do work
- • Every plural takes “de”, without exception.
- • Every diminutive ending in -je takes “het”, without exception.
- • Nouns ending in -ing, -heid, -tie, -teit or -schap take “de”.
- • Roughly two thirds of all nouns take “de”, so it is the better guess.
Other nouns whose article has to be memorised
Stop guessing de and het
Woordje has a practice mode for exactly this: it shows a noun and asks for the article, and keeps asking until you stop getting it wrong.